Of Stars and Darkened Rooms
by Dark-Lady-Devinity
Summary: Isa and Lea finally break into the castle during a night that's full of stars. It's the last time they'll see natural light as somebodies. For cookieraven through akusaisecretsanta.


**Of Stars and Darkened Rooms**

**A/n: **I participated in the akusai secret Santa gift exchange on tumblr. This is for cookieraven. Her prompt was: _I love the whole angsty between the two, also how adorable they are when they're somebodies. anything angsty with them is definitely my fav thing, is it au or not, will it be fanfic, drawing, video, graphic, anything really. Also anything with them as somebodies right before they turn makes me really happy cause they're simply adorable ;u; I hope this is enough but I guess mostly anything will make me happy xD_

**Of Stars and Darkened Rooms**

It was a beautiful, starry night. The weather reports had called for clouds and it was the new moon so Isa had thought they'd have plenty of cover. And it was dark enough despite the lack of cloud cover for a power outage had taken out the street lamps. Yet the lack of power meant that there was no light pollution to hide the thousands, millions, trillions of stars in the sky.

Tonight would be the night they broke into the castle.

Usually their plans called for a day break in because Isa would have study group or Lea would have a date or one or the other would have an extra-curricular activity or family game night in the evening. But then the power suddenly went off during the final hour of classes and everything had been cancelled. Isa and Lea, sat next to each other with their math books before them, shared a look.

"We'll do it tonight." Isa had said as Lea grinned.

Isa had believed that the power outage meant that everyone at the castle would be too busy to carefully guard the doors. There would be backup generators to check up on, scientific experiments to rescue and whatever else needed to be done in a castle during a circumstance like this. The power had already been out for six hours when Isa and Lea were ready to go.

The boys had told their parents that they were going star gazing. It was an easy lie because Isa was into astronomy and often liked to chart stars. The new moon and lack of light pollution meant that Isa had a perfect view of the night sky in the city. Maybe they'd even have the chance to do so if they were quick about investigating the castle. Isa had taken his charts and tools with him, after all, to help their cover. He had also brought flash lights in case the castle didn't have a backup generator and the hallways were shrouded in darkness.

Lea had packed cookies and soda for their celebration of finally breaking into the castle. He had a feeling that tonight would be the night. He also brought his Frisbees because he was weird like that.

When they arrived to the castle, Dilan and Aeleus weren't guarding the doors.

Lea frowned. "Where do you think they are?"

"Inside maybe." Isa said, unsure. "I wasn't expecting both of them anyway as the power loss means they should have raised security inside the castle. Although I would have thought that at least one of them would still be on guard duty or, at the very least, Braig would be here."

"I've heard people say that they haven't seen much of the guards lately." Lea said.

That was true enough. Isa and Lea rarely saw Ienzo, Even or the newer scientist, Xehanort, either. Ansem the Wise had practically disappeared and people were going missing all the time. Strange black creatures with yellow eyes had also started showing up around town, adding new fear to the town. People still hadn't forgotten the Unversed that had used to haunt the streets. Lea knew that Isa had always been suspicious of the castle and he had an unnatural hatred of secrets despite easily keeping them. Lea had just wanted to go on an adventure with his best friend. Yet when people started going missing and the monsters that attacked weren't the same anymore, Lea started thinking. And he didn't like what he imagined. He started to be more suspicious of the scientists and he wanted to know what they were up to so he could tell himself it was just typical science.

It had to be just typical science stuff that science people did.

Because if it wasn't….

"Are you ready?" Isa asked.

"As always." Lea said. He was at that. Whatever they found in there would answer all their questions. Isa gave the night sky one last, appreciative look. Lea watched Isa and wondered if the sky held as much fascination for his friend and he held for Isa. Then they went in together.

It was dark in the castle, which was to be expected, but it was also unnaturally quiet. Isa had closed the doors behind them so that they would be encased in the darkness and so that their eyes could adjust. The halls were too dark for that so he had to settle on using a flash light. Lea let Isa lead the way. He had his own flash light but thought it best if they created a minimal amount of light.

There wasn't much that stood out about the castle. It looked like any other building except for the fact that it was bigger and grander. The boys spent some time exploring the main level before heading down towards what was the computer room. Lea was beginning to think that they wouldn't find anything unusual at all. The thought of that sat funnily in his stomach. He had promised himself that after he and Isa finally had a successful break in then he would ask the blue haired boy out on a proper date. Lea always dated for fun in the past but he was serious about Isa.

Then Isa opened the computer room door and nothing would ever be the same again.

Even, Aeleus, Ienzo and Dilan were all passed out on the floor. The darkness was suffocating and Isa had hurriedly backed up into Lea. Lea's first thought was that they should run. Then they heard laughter.

"You chose a fine night to come visiting." Braig's familiar voice was coming from directly behind them. He sounded smug.

"Did you attack them?" Lea demanded and he pushed Isa farther into the room and away from Braig. The scarred apprentice just followed them.

"No, not me." Braig said. "I helped set it up but these fools helped set themselves up too. But I wasn't the one to take their hearts."

"Take their hearts?" Isa asked, incredulously. "You can't take a person's heart. They'd die."

"There's no one type of dead." Braig answered. "I'd tell you more but there isn't time. And I can't have witnesses. Sorry kids."

Then Braig pulled out his arrowguns and swiped them towards the boys. Lea didn't know what Braig was intending to do as Isa pushed him out of the way and tackled the guard.

"Run!" Isa yelled. But Lea was not going to leave him.

He didn't have time to anyway. The red head was suddenly being tossed aside and he just had time to watch Xehanort walk towards Braig and Isa before Isa hit his head on the hard floor. Dazed, he heard Isa scream in pain but he didn't see it happen. When his vision cleared, Lea saw Isa clutching his face and blood pouring out from between his fingers. Xehanort and Braig were studying the two of them.

"Could have been a quick end, kids." Braig said, shrugging. "But you had to fight back."

"It's fine. We can use them." Xehanort said calmly.

"Really? Hey, you guys are going to learn about the different kinds of dead after all." Braig said.

"Nobodies do not die as they are nothing to begin with." Xehanort said.

And then Xehanort was removing the heart from Isa's chest without even cutting him open. Isa, blinded by his own blood in his eyes, never saw the attack coming. But he had to have spent his last few moments listening to Lea scream.

The last thing Lea heard was his own voice after all. But it was as if he was removed from it all. The only thing he truly registered was Isa falling, unconscious or dead or some horrible in-between state. Lea was still screaming that distant, far away mournful cry when Xehanort turned on him as well.

His last thoughts were of clear starry nights and the boy that had loved him and the things they'd never be able to say to each other ever again.


End file.
